Make the ban NYPD chokeholds work this time

Protesters begin to gather outside the storefront on Bay Street where Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, died July 17 after a police chokehold, hours before the Rev. Al Sharpton's "We Won't Go Back" march was to begin in Staten Island on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014. Photo Credit: Steven Sunshine

Since the early 1990s, the NYPD has banned the use of chokeholds -- and for good reason.

When an officer applies pressure to a subject's windpipe or neck during a scuffle, the risk of precipitating an accidental death soars.

On July 17, for example, as cops on Staten Island took down Eric Garner on a charge of selling loose cigarettes, an officer applied something that looked like a chokehold -- with his arm wrapped around Garner' neck.

Garner, an asthmatic, died while fighting for breath.

Unfortunately, the use of this dangerous tactic -- though prohibited -- never really went away throughout the 1990s and 2000s, according to a report this week by Philip Eure, who was recently installed in the new position of NYPD inspector general.

Why? It seems the brass never sent a clear message to the rank-and-file reinforcing the smart 1993 dictum of John Timoney, who would become NYPD chief of department. He warned cops that when facing physical resistance, they should "stay away from the neck." He added, "We're in the business of protecting life, not taking it."

The inspector general's report pointed to 10 chokehold incidents between 2009 and 2014 -- cases that had been verified by the city's Citizens Complaint Review Board.

The NYPD Advocate's Office had prosecuted seven of them. But none wound up going before an NYPD trial commissioner. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly dialed down recommended penalties in six cases.